Electronic document publishing often demands more than a stack of paper in an output tray of an office printer. Typically, a plurality of duplex printed sheets are bound into finished documents by a publishing system that prints and finishes books. Publishing systems perform operations such as collating, binding, folding, trimming, stapling, etc. These finishing operations are typically performed on all of the sheets in a book at one time, which generally requires the use of high forces and powerful motors. Consequently, the systems adapted to perform these functions are relatively expensive and often exceed the cost of other desktop or office printers. As such, known publishing systems are not generally well suited for use in low-cost desktop bookmaking.
In particular, publishing systems typically require high forces to bind a document. Conventional desktop or office publishing systems form saddle-bound documents with staples that are pushed through the stack of papers and deformed to bind the stack of papers together. In order to staple stacks of paper, relatively high forces are utilized, which requires more powerful motors to be incorporated into the publishing system, therefore, increasing costs associated with the publishing systems. Therefore, a need exists for a publishing system that decreases forces and motor power used within the publishing system to form a saddle-bound document and that is suitable for use with office printers and for methods associated therewith.